The 2017 Tony Awards - He/She Said What?! Relive the Acceptance Speeches!

As part of BroadwayWorld's expansive coverage of the 71st Annual Tony Awards, we are providing the full text of all of the 2017 Tony Award acceptance speeches; from the emotional to the bizarre, and everything in between. Keep up with all of the winners' speeches on our continuously updated list below.

Also make sure to stick with BroadwayWorld throughout the evening, and into the morning, for all of the best videos, pictures, interviews, and commentary from theatre's biggest night!

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Michael Aronov, OSLO, Best Featured Actor in a Play: "My aunt and uncle and their two kids in New Jersey opened their hearts and their home to me 20 years ago when I first moved to New York and was trying to be an actor. They took me in and treated me like I was their son. I would have 5 sets of keys in my bag at all times if I missed the bus from doing shows in the city; I had friends, rare and remarkable ones who kept their doors open to me at any hour of the night. I was finally able to save up a couple dollars and move into the city, a tiny, tiny studio apartment where if you walked in too fast, you'd fly out the window. My mom and dad didn't know I was living off of pasta, cheese, and rice pudding to be a frugal actor because it would break their hearts and they would flip the world upside down to help me to be ok, because when I hurt, they hurt more. And when I smile and soar, they're able to breathe. Thanks to Bart and JT, this is the biggest honor in my life, but mainly because my mom and dad are here with me tonight. Solomon and Anna Aronov, you've always had my back more than anyone else in the world and you loved me and Greg more than yourselves. My victories mean nothing unless I'm sharing them with you. Thank you."

Gavin Creel, HELLO, DOLLY, Best Featured Actor in a Musical: "Oh my goodness. Thank you so much to the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League. I wanna thank, oh my goodness me! I want to thank everybody in Hello, Dolly! I love all of you. From Scott Rudin, our intrepid producer, to my beautiful dresser, Mia Mooney. But, I wanna dedicate this, oh my goodness, to the musical theatre department of the University of Michigan School of Theatre and Dance. My education there as a young person changed my life forever. My professors, my classmates, they instill in me an appreciation for what it is to be an artist, and what it is to be lucky to be a part of this incredible community. If you're out there and you have money, and I know a lot of you in this room have a lot of it, start a scholarship. Change someone's life like Marty Harrin changed mine. My mom and dad I love you so much. Henry, I love you so much. Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Cynthia Nixon, Lillian Hellman's THE LITTLE FOXES, Best Featured Actress in a Play: "My thanks to the American Theatre Wing for this tremendous honor. Thanks also to Dan Sullivan, whose birthday it is today! And Lyn Meadow and the Manhattan Theatre club who had been bugging Laura Linney to do this play for years. Thanks especially to the great Laura Linney for thinking outside the box, and for thinking of me when she did this. I share this with the extraordinary cast, crew and staff at the Friedman. I share this with my god sent wife, and our beloved children, Sam, Charlie and Max. It is a privilege to appear in Lillian Hellman's eerily present play at this specific moment in history. 80 years ago she wrote "There were people who eat the earth, and eat all the people on it, and other people who just stand around and watch them do it." My love, my gratitude, and undying respect go out to all the people in 2017 who are refusing to just stand and watch them do it. Thank you."

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, DEAR EVAN HANSEN, Best Score: "Ok, we have to first and foremost thank the people who put us here! Our families, my family who is here tonight. To sweet Emmy at home and to Asher, we did this together. Thank you, I love you. To my mom, and my dad and my brothers, I love you! To Steven Levinson, our book writer, every word and note is inspired by you. To Stacey Mindich, our producer, we gave you the weirdest idea for a musical and you followed this eight year journey with us and we are so grateful for it. Michael Grief, you are incomparable, and your work inspired us to fall in love with musical theatre in the first place. You are a dream collaborator. Alex Lacamoire, you and the band have breathed such life into our songs, we thank you so much! To the entire cast, your raw and honest performances are the most incredible thing. BEN PLATT! BEN PLATT! BEN PLATT! You have given us the most incredible journey of a lifetime. Thank you Marc Platt for giving us a tree trunk and teaching us to arise. When we were kids, we dreamed of having a home and a place where we could belong, and theatre and cast albums were that thing for us. We hoped to write a show that people who were looking for a home could find one. And we are so grateful to everyone who gave us the opportunity to try and do that. Thank you so much! "

Kevin Kline, PRESENT LAUGHTER, Best Leading Actor in a Play: "Thank you, American Theatre Wing. I want to thank my wife and my children, and my family of actors in Present Laughter. My director, everybody. I want to thank everybody! We don't do this alone, you know? It's a group effort, and it's a wonderful group I'm privileged to be working with. Gee, I guess I should thank my mentors, Joseph Papp, John Houseman, Margo Holly, and Harold Guskin. And I would like to thank a couple of organizations, without whom, probably half of the people in this room would not be here. That would be the National Endowment for the Arts, and the national Endowment for the Humanities. Thank you.

Laurie Metcalf, A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2, Best Leading Actress in a Play: "This is an honor, and in order to accept this, I have to thank my sweet sparring partners Jane Howdyshell (spelling) Chris Cooper, Condola Rashad. I have to thank Sam Gold for guiding us through. I have to thank Luca Nathe for writing such a funny, fresh and provocative play. And I must must thank Scott Rudin for having the foresight for knowing that A Doll's House, Part 2 could and should go straight to Broadway with no tryout. Scott, I'm so grateful for including me on this project. And finally, I have to thank my daughter May and my son Donovan for putting up with me being gone for long stretches of time so I could do what I love doing most, which is working in the theatre. Thank you."

Rachel Bay Jones, DEAR EVAN HANSEN, Best Featured Actress in a Musical: "Hey Tony Awards, what the heck? I've been in and out of this business for so long. It's pretty amazing that I'm here and in this show that I love so much, it's an honor and a dream come true. Thank you to the man I sold my engagement ring to so I could move to New York to be an actor. Thank you to my first and only acting teachers, my parents, Mona and Dennis Jones. Thank you for cursing me to love theatre which I resented them for for 35 years. And tonight, I totally forgive you! My daughter, Amanda, you have sacrificed having a mom around for so many bad times so I could keep doing this thing that I gotta do, and you are my biggest cheerleader. Benin Foster, my husband, my partner, my best friend, my acting coach, my joke meister, none of this would be possible without your sacrifices, I'm so grateful. My team, Jeremy, PMK, Stone Manor, everyone at Dear Evan Hansen! Oh my god, Stacy Mindich for giving everyone this beautiful gift and wonderful show. Ben and my gorgeous cast, I just love you. I'm sorry I'm out of time, but this is incredible thank you so much!"

Rebecca Taichman, INDECENT, Best Direction of a Play: "Am I dreaming? Is this some kind of crazy dream? OK, 90 seconds. I'm in a state of total shock. There's so many people to thank. First, let me just start with my parents who are here, who taught me to always follow my passion and and to follow social justice. My sister, who wrote this beautiful line from the play, "We have a story to tell you about a play that changed my life," on my arm and her beautiful children that all came from California. My beautiful family, my beautiful and perfect husband who I love so much. And my Indecent family. This is a story about love in perilous time and about speaking out and making art when, sorry I'm totally in shock, when one is at great danger. And I wanna thank from the bottom of my tattered heart, the genius Paula Vogel for giving me the play of my dreams. So many places that produced this play, Yale, L'oya, the vineyard, Daryl Roth, Cody Lasson, Liz McCan, our incredible cast, David Dorfman, unbelieveable designers and the crew. And it has to be said James Laitus and all the stage managers out there. Amanda Spooner. I love you all! Thank you! Woo!"

Christopher Ashley, COME FROM AWAY, Best Direction of a Play: "Thank you so much, wow! I want to start by thanking La Jolla Playhouse, my theatrical home. The extraordinary David and Irene, our authors who have told this story with so much grace and heart. To the Junkyard Dogs, to the amazing cast, and crew, and band down at the Schoenfeld Theatre. I want to thank the best collaborators you can imagine, Kelly Devine and Ian Eisendrath. Most of all, I want to accept this on behalf of the people of Newfoundland and all of the first responders and their families in New York on 9/11; the people who gave their lives and the peple who extended their hearts and their homes who were generous and kind in the worst of moments. To all of you, thank you."

August Wilson's JITNEY, Best Revival of a Play: "Thank you so much! The actors, my partner, Barry Grove and I are so thrilled, and on behalf of all of us at Manhattan Theatre Club, and our co-producing partners. We want to tell you, it was a complete privilege and an honor to produce this show. Thank you to a fantastic acting company and an amazing company of designers; they're great. And special thanks to our director, the great Ruben Santiago. Ruben was determined that Jitney would make its Broadway bow, and he was an inspiration to all of us. He brought out the best in all of us, and we are so grateful to him. August Wilson wrote ten plays, one for every decade in the 20th century that chronicled African American life and culture. Jitney is a shining example of his brilliance, his poetry, his deep insight into the human heart, and his belief in the importance of coming together in community, to overcome adversity, and to celebrate our humanity, our shared humanity. Thank you so much!"

OSLO, Best Play: "Thank you all so much. Thank you to the League and thank you to the American Theatre Wing. I need to thank the staff of Lincoln Center Theatre and the board of Lincoln Center Theatre and our marvelous company, our wonder designers, the front of house of the Beaumont, the stage technicians, the stage manager, who's incredible, and of course, our lovely director Bartlett Sher. There were four nominees for best play, and I can tell you every single one of those plays was superb. There have been incredible plays, not just on Broadway, but Off Broadway, this year, all over New York City, and all over this country. And we, because we're in the theatre and kind of neurotic and odd, we don't realize we're in the golden age of American playwriting. And it's my honor to introduce one of the authors of that golden age, J.T. Rogers."

"It's great to speak after Andre, because he says all the things you want to say, but better. So I second everything you said. Thank you to Lincoln Center, my home. What a privilege. To the other nominees, Lucas, Lynn and Paula, you are my friends and my heroes. Everyone in the Oslo family, my god. And Bartlett Sher, you are an effing genius, man! Unbelievable, thank you. I want to thank John Bassetti, I want to thank my beautiful, beautiful wife Rebecca and our son, Henry, and playpenn and paul. To the gentlemen of the Oslo accords who believed in democracy, who believed in seeing peace, who believed in seeing their enemies as humans, I give this up for them. God bless you."

HELLO, DOLLY, Best Revival of a Musical: "I'm breaking the rule here bringing up more than six people, because it took all of these people to make Hello, Dolly. It was a huge honor to do this. I first saw the show 50 years ago when I was 8; I sat in the last row of balcony of the St. James and it was a remarkable and life-changing evening. I want to thank Jerry Herman, profoundly. Mike Stuart, Thornton Wilder, Gower Champion. Jerry Zaks and Warren Carlyle, I think they both did an extraordinary job. We had an amazing time doing this; everybody was drawn to it by a love of the show and a profound attempt to remind people what musicals were like in the 60s during the Golden Age. This is the prime example of what a Golden Age musical is. I want thank Bette Midler. We would not be standing here without her. She's a very great artist. I also want to thank my husband, John Barlow, who has literally listened to every version of "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" for the last two and a half years without complaining too much. Thank you, very proud to be here!"

Ben Platt, DEAR EVAN HANSEN, Best Actor in a Musical: "Okay, okay! This is a Tony, hello! When I was six years old, I was the prince in Cinderella, in a blue sequin vest, and I've spent everyday of my life since then madly in love with musical theatre. It's where I've found everything I've ever loved and where I belonged. I've dreamed everyday since of being on this stage and in this community of artist. Thank you to the Dear Evan Hansen family. Thank you to Pasek and Paul and Steven Levenson and Stacey Mindich and Michael Greif. My performance was not possible without all of you. Your contribution to musical theatre has changed my life since I was a little kid and now I get to work with you, it's absolutely incredible, truly. Thank you to my cast: Laura Dreyfuss, Mike Faist, Will Roland, Kristolyn Lloyd, Michael Park, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Rachel Bay Jones. Thank you Paul to my dresser, thank you to Liz Caplan, my genius voice teacher. Oh god, thank you to Natalie King Horn, my physical therapist so that I don't become a hunchback. Thank you to Joe Mahona, Heather Reynolds, Jeff Wolman. My beautiful siblings that are here: Samantha, Jonah, Hannah, and Henry; you guys are the best club and I am so happy to be a part of you. You've shaped who I am, I love you so much. I also want to thank my sister-in-law Courtney and brother-in-law Michael who's at home in Los Angeles with my edible, edible nephews. Noah, Jordan, Ryan, don't stay awake, go to sleep, I love you! I want to thank my parents, my heroes, Julie Platt and Marc Platt, the greatest people I've ever met. Everybody says that about their parents, but it's true, I will fight you. They're the best people in the entire world. Dad, you're my hero. You taught me that you have to be a decent human being to be a decent artist, and I love you for it. And finally, to all the young people watching at home, don't waste any time trying to be like anybody else but yourself, because the things that make you strange are the things that make you powerful. Thank you."

Bette Midler, HELLO, DOLLY, Best Actress in a Musical: "I am so privileged, I am so honored to receive this from you all tonight, I really am. I hope I don't cry. I have so many people to thank. I want to thank the American Theatre Wing to begin with, and all the Tony voters, many of whom I've actually dated. And thank you, this has been one of the greatest professional experiences of my entire life. I'm grateful for the outpouring of love and affection that have greeted me and this production. It has been absolutely extraordinary. That saying, I can't remember the last time I had so much smoke blown up my ass, but there is no more room, so thank you. This is the cherry on the cake. I owe everything to Scott Rudin, who is the greatest producer I have ever worked with in my life. His tenacity, his unerring eye, his willingness to pay the price and to hire the best and the brightest has given me the ride of my life. Between his choice of Director, Jerry Zaks, the brilliant inspired lunacy of Jerry Zaks. Coern and Carlyle whose stardust is sprinkled over all of Champion's original designs. Sandra Loquasto, who I actually saw painting props in the basement of the Shubert Theatre, that's dedication, OK. Who's sets and designs knock people off their feet every single night of the week. And Natasha Katz, who, what can I say, she makes me look 30 years younger than I am, what can I say? Natasha, marry me, please? Maybe not 30 years, let's make it 20. I look ok. But Natasha is good. And I also wanted to say thank you to Scott for his extraordinary sound design. I want to say thank you to Campbell Young for the most beautiful hair Broadway, I am not kidding people, not for one minute. I want to say thank you to the man who kept me from crashing and burning a million times, Andy, who is our musical director. Every night i get to play in the sandbox of the SHubert with the great group of clowns I've ever encountered. David Hyde Pierce, Gavin Creel, Kate Baldwin, help me out here! Melanie Moore, Taylor Trench, Amy Feldstein. Wait a second! I have teachers just like you do! Owen Wilburton, I mustn't forget him. I had teachers just like you do, and way back in the 60s before all this stuff happened, Mrs. Merna Ishimoto, Mrs. Betty Blank Rise. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I thank Jill, who keeps me from falling off the ledge twice a day. I thank May, I thank Betty, I thank my beloved Osland. And I just want to say, I want to say, revival, shut that crap off! I just want to say that revival is an interesting word. It means that something is near death, and it was brought back to life. Hello, Dolly never really went away. It has been here all along. It is in our DNA, it is in our national songs that will live forever. It is optimism, it is democracy, it's color, it's love of life, it's hilarity. This is a classic. Come and see it. It's not just me! The whole thing is utterly... this thing has the ability to lift your spirits in these terrible, terrible times. Come and see it. And lastly, I wanted to thank, I wanted to dedicate, I wanted to salute the people who actually came before me. The brilliant, brilliant inevitable Carol Channing, who made my life, who was a gift to me. The extraordinary Pearl Bailey, and all of the hundreds of women who came after me and will lead the way, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you all. "

DEAR EVAN HANSEN, Best Musical: "Thank you so much! On behalf of the entire Dear Evan Hansen family, thank you so very much. Benj and Justin, it's been a deep joy and an honor over an eight year journey to watch you grow from a pair of promising 24 year olds to the brilliant men and briliant artists who you are today. Steven Levenson, your book is a masterpiece of authenticity. Michael Greif, you are an exquisite director, leader, human being, and friend. Thank you to the cast of my wildest dreams. Ben, Peter Marks tweeted it best when he said, "I think Ben Platt is Superman!" Thank you also to our stellar designers, our brilliant music team led by Alex Lacamoire, our family at Atlantic Records, the most supporting producing partners, especially the Shuberts, Arena Stage, Second Stage. Thank you to our fans from Martha and Jule in California to to Kaho in Japan, you have been seen and heard and found. You matter. Wendy and Jeff in 101, my partners, my friends, my rock. Much love to my devoted parents for indulging my need to see A Chorus Line 28 times. Russell, Danny, and Charlie, you are my most beloved productions. Eric, no award could ever top the gift of being married to you, I love you.

At its core, our musical is about wanting to belong. It's been an honor to belong to a season filled with such fantastic work. Congratulations one and all, and goodnight!"